The Raw and the Cook

Our New Address

2011-08-02T09:23:00.002-04:00

Our website it operational! Sure, there are details that need updating, but you can navigate from page to page and even see a few pictures. From now on, you can get your dose of farm new at openbookfarm.wordpress.com. We have a new blog there as well, hosted by Wordpress, which includes fancy new features like subscription (never miss another one of my too infrequent posts!) Despite our

The Learning Curve

2011-07-21T17:03:00.002-04:00

No matter how long you farm, you've always got something new to learn. Here are just a few of the gems we've gleaned from our first week as Open Book Farm:If you own multiple vehicles and live on a farm, it is a bad idea to carry the keys in your purse. You just might drive off somewhere really far away (say, New York) and accidentally take both sets of keys with you.Chick hatcheries can (and

My Shepherd

2011-07-20T15:33:00.003-04:00

We're finally starting our farm! We're deep in the throes of website development at present (as well as chick brooder construction, market research, crop planning, and of course food preservation), so please forgive us the dearth of details. I must, however, share at least one with you--our name. Welcome to Open Book

Not For the Faint of Heart

2011-01-29T04:00:00.002-05:00

Like every great epic, we begin in medias res:I'm in Hong Kong!And I'm married!We'll catch up on the details some other day. For now, I'm on epicurean holiday.I read in a cookbook recently an old joke that the Cantonese will eat anything with four legs except a chair. Based on my admittedly limited sample set, this seems like a conservative assesment. For starters, Cantonese cuisine

2010-06-06T11:08:00.001-04:00

Prosperpina's Return

2010-06-06T07:04:00.004-04:00

In Roman mythology, Ceres was the goddess of growing plants and mothering relationships, though she is perhaps most remembered as the mother of the abducted goddess Proserpina. According to the myth, the god of the underworld fell in love with Prosperina, kidnapped her, and made her his queen in the realm of the dead. Ceres, out of grief at the loss of her daughter, immediately stopped the

The Best Man is a Horse

2010-05-19T21:30:00.004-04:00

Well. It has been a busy spring. Standing on the site of the greenhouse at the beginning of April, I felt a little bit crazy. What kind of mad hubris would make me believe that I could do so much in so little time: build a greenhouse, assist with a massive home renovation, build a CSA from the ground up, and nurse my little plantlings up from the frozen ground? Perhaps if we'd planted

Vegetable Musical Chairs

2010-04-27T20:02:00.006-04:00

I'm a planner and a list-maker by nature, one of those compulsive types who sometimes writes down tasks after having completed them, simply for the pleasure of checking them off as done. So you can imagine what the lead-up to this year was like for me: umpteen spreadsheets and to-do lists and timetables and budgets, to the point where my computer ran slow from so many open windows. They are my

The View from Tuesday

2010-04-11T18:10:00.001-04:00

Some days (like Monday), chores expand. Milking turns into bottling, collecting eggs turns into cleaning eggs, the walk behind rototiller keeps dying, and watering the animals turns into castrating piglets. Before you know it, 4 AM has turned into noon, and all hands are on deck to finish the chores so that we can finally go home for a proper meal. Days like Monday have their purpose, though,

How Badly Do You Want It?

2010-04-09T16:48:00.002-04:00

My eyes are bigger than my garden. I think I can attribute this overambitiousness to Eliot Coleman's books Winter Harvest Handbook and the classic New Organic Grower. Eliot Coleman, whose brilliant designs and incredibly efficient systems yield fresh greenery all winter long (in Maine!) can be both inspiring and depressing when you are in my position. As a farmer striking out on her own this

Secret Family Recipe (this is your only chance)

2010-03-25T09:31:00.006-04:00

Breakfast today was a revelatory experience. So good, in fact, that I am considering letting this farming thing fall to the wayside to pursue fame and fortune as the proprietress of a new breakfast cafe: "The Intranational House of Pancakes" All puns aside, I can safely say that this is my favorite pancake recipe of all time. And the weirdest thing? These pancakes have almost no sweetener

Miso Soup for the Soul

2010-03-05T06:42:00.003-05:00

Lately, things have been a bit frantic in my household. There are approximately 15 million decisions to make (give or take a thousand), and while the days are lengthening, they never seem quite long enough to accommodate my optimistic to-do lists. Some days, I throw my hands up and make a fancy dinner anyway, time be damned.But on occasion I too want good food fast, and since the closest thing

Gone From My Sight

2010-02-19T07:20:00.003-05:00

I flew to visit my grandmother Monday; I caught the last flight out of JFK before the snows swept in and put the city on hold. I knew that it would be my last chance to see her, and I worried that I might arrive too late. My father and I woke early to hit the road to Alabama; our car cut through the chilly morning air past grass the faded tan of winter.When we arrived, my Uncle was waiting to

On Serendipity: A Retrospective

2010-02-13T15:55:00.002-05:00

I believe in America’s agricultural revival. I’m 23 years old, the product of a small liberal arts college and a bustling, cosmopolitan graduate school, and I’m comparison shopping for work boots and overalls in preparation for my first day as a farmer. I’ll be honest; I don’t entirely know what I’m getting into. I grew up in the city, have never grown so much as a tomato. Call me crazy, but I

The Breakfast of Champions

2010-02-10T13:08:00.005-05:00

Who doesn't love a snow day? Well, the snowplow operator might not be so thrilled when he looks out his window onto a downy dusting of snow, but this morning brought great rejoicing among the students and faculty of the charter school where I have been subbing. Substitute teacher that I am, I did not get the memo that school was off until I had driven 25 minutes and pulled into a ghost-town

Iron Chef: Haggis Challenge

2010-02-02T19:52:00.006-05:00

Rumor has it that the most popular question on the President’s CitizenTube talking point list enquires as to the future of that most cherished of stoner dreams: the legalization of marijuana. Personally, I’m impatient with such trivial matters. A far graver US ban haunts my days and nights: the longstanding haggis blockade.In case you missed it, Burns Night (anniversary of the birth of Scotland

Beantrees

2010-01-24T16:35:00.005-05:00

My first seed order has arrived! Never has such a small box conveyed more promise and excitement for me. With this affirmation that I am a bonafide yeoman farmgirl, I figured that I ought to start behaving like a proper small business owner and begin keeping track of business expenses. So I traipsed on out to Staples, loaded up on printer ink, tupperware boxes, and filing supplies, and came

The Deep Freeze

2010-01-13T20:23:00.003-05:00

Last night, I watched a movie all about dirt. The documentary was, in fact, entitled "Dirt!" (the exclamation point conveyed by the somewhat manic animation sequences depicting the microscopic life of dirt), and it did an admirable job of describing a conventionally unglamorous substance as worthy of awe and admiration. I came out of the screening with the same buoyant, yearning heart that

The Best Laid Plans

2009-12-23T10:26:00.002-05:00

Late last night, I finally watched the film Julie and Julia--the parallel story of Julia Child and here twenty-first century devotee and blogger, Julie Powell. Unsurprisingly, half way through the film I found myself guiltily reflecting on my lax blogging as of late while simultaneously chastising myself for the self-aggrandizing thought that anyone other than me had lost any sleep over this

Bringing Home the Bacon (Fat)

2009-11-30T18:36:00.003-05:00

Given the glut of food propaganda, I think it is high time for me to join the fray. The way I figure, vegetables have plenty of champions, from Michael Pollan to Michelle Obama. Meat has Joel Salatin, a staunch defender if ever I met one. Even high fructose corn syrup has its defenders (though I'm more a fan of the rebuttal, myself). So I'm going to defend fat: poor under appreciated, unloved

Pastured Poultry Preservation

2009-11-17T22:29:00.009-05:00

Recently, preparing to leave Massachusetts for a sojourn in the sunny south, I surveyed my winter stockpile of provisions with a critical eye. I needed stock. Chicken stock. Lots of chicken stock. What, after all, is a cold winter’s day without a pot of soup steaming on the stovetop and a mug of cocoa reanimating my frosted fingers? Admittedly, homemade stock has never been my

The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization

2009-10-25T16:07:00.003-04:00

Lacking Visigoths banging at the gates, we must look for subtler clues that our civilization is in decline. I found one yesterday, much to my chagrin, on the packaging of mason jar replacement lids. The title of the recipe read: Enjoy Mild Fiesta Salsa Year-Round! Sounds good, right? A recipe for home canners? About that... The recipe calls for 5 cans of diced tomatoes, 1 package of "Mild

The Real Deal on Veal

2009-10-14T21:34:00.005-04:00

I’ve never been a big fan of traditional signs of love and commitment: flowers, rings, buying a dog together. Instead, Andrew and I bought a veal calf and a chest freezer.This is the culmination of my quest, begun one year ago, to confront my own questions about the appropriateness of eating meat. I’ve had my doubts, guilty moments in between the ecstasy of bacon and a heaping portion of

A Watermelon Manifesto

2009-09-30T20:46:00.007-04:00

Seedless watermelons. I can't stand them. Well, secretly, I too have been victim to their charms (so much easier for cooking!), but when it comes to my garden I flatly refuse to grow them. It's a philosophical stance for me, as well as an aesthetic one. Unquestionably, they look silly. What's the vivid pink and electric green of a watermelon without the unassuming black seeds holding it all

Economies of Scale

2009-09-22T21:43:00.002-04:00

Under normal circumstances, I'm not one to advocate for economies of scale. They have their place and purpose, I know, but I'm of the opinion that we Americans are a bit over-attached to the concept, to the detriment of both our food system and our waistlines. But when you need to make enough tomatillo salsa to feed a hungry crew of farmers all through the winter and spring, you're going to need

Don't Tell My Professors...

2009-09-15T22:02:00.004-04:00

Ever since I was in elementary school, I have loved Wallace Steven's poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbird" for its dark wintery mysteries. But as it is not yet dark and wintery here, I think that a small homage (or parody, depending on your perspective) is in order.Thirteen Ways of Looking At A ChickenIAmong twenty snowy mountains,The only moving thingWas the eye of the chicken.III was

Working On My Forehand

2009-09-09T20:23:00.006-04:00

Last winter, while in New York City, I heard that the Museum of Modern Art was showing a Van Gogh exhibition which highlighted Van Gogh's night skies. Of course, "Starry Night" was the centerpiece around which all other paintings orbited. It fame is certainly justified, and the turbulent skies over the village seemed even more celestial when I saw them in person. But what caught my eye and held

Can She Bake A (Husk) Cherry Pie?

2009-09-05T13:15:00.002-04:00

In some respects, the process of becoming a good eater is almost more fun than the actuality of being one. The road to good eating is paved with firsts--my first portobello mushroom, thick and savory, the piquant crunch of my first pickled okra, the vivid nourishing freshness in my first bite of kale. I may never be the National Geographic explorer to which I once aspired, but I fill my hunger

Signs and Miracles

2009-08-28T20:21:00.003-04:00

In the evening of my first day at Caretaker, a perfect rainbow spanned the valley as I stepped out of the house to walk down to my cabin. At the time, I took the Biblical interpretation, and inferred that it was a promise of a wonderful season, definitely one without too much precipitation. Well. I've seen about 10 perfect rainbows since, and I have now come to the conclusion that rainbows are

You Can Take the Girl Out of Georgia...

2009-08-19T21:31:00.005-04:00

When I first came to Caretaker to interview, Don warned me of the brutal heat of a Berkshire summer. "There will be about a week in the 90's," he said seriously. "Only one week?" I asked incredulously, "I think I can handle that."That week, in all of its sun-baked glory finally arrived last Friday, and I have spent every sweaty moment since in a heat-addled bliss. It is finally hot enough to

Delusion/Delimma

2009-08-13T21:44:00.002-04:00

I've been lax as of late, for which I apologize. In part, my sporadic posting has been the result of over stimulation: I first went on vacation to Virginia, where I visited Andrew at the now-famous Polyface Farm; then I attended the Northeast Organic Farming Association Summer Conference in Amherst, MA. Between processing 600 chickens in 4 hours, taking notes on 7 excellent workshops, and

I Scream, You Scream

2009-07-28T21:17:00.002-04:00

I've learned quite a bit about cows this year. Of course, I came to Caretaker knowing little more than that cows are the first step in ice cream, and therefore worthy of all due reverence and respect. Having spent the past few months living around them, moving them from pasture to pasture, and, as of late, milking Chloe, my appreciation has matured, and I have come to consider them a critical

An Ode to Chloe

2009-07-15T13:58:00.005-04:00

When did I become a farmer, rather than simply a curious person who wanted to grow food? I don't think it was the day that I signed up for the next agricultural census, or my first garlic harvest, or even when I worked through summer's heat in Georgia or a month of rain in Massachusetts. Of course, such a stepping into self doesn't occur in the course of a day, any more than I wake up each

Stone Soup

2009-07-07T20:27:00.005-04:00

So in my free time this year, I've taken on a new hobby--gardening. I admit, part of my motivation for creating a garden is the dumbfounded looks I get from shareholders and friends when I say that when not farming, I garden. But really, my gardening project was mainly a Southerner's rebellion against the constraints of a Northern CSA farm. In April, I was appalled to discover that we don't

A Blessed Event

2009-06-27T21:53:00.000-04:00

It is a good year to be an apprentice at Caretaker farm: we've had buckets of rain almost daily, leading to rampant weed growth in every available patch of soil. New England is naturally a less-than-ideal climate for strawberries, but the rain has been particularly brutal to our berries. Without any chance to dry out between the rain and the overcast days, mold is running rampant in our

Fecundity

2009-06-21T21:26:00.001-04:00

Under normal circumstances, we don't spend much of our time across the creek in the so called "River Field." Most of the crops in the River Field are low maintenance storage crops: potatoes, winter squash, cabbage, carrots. Our hope is that we can do our bed prep and planting in a day for most things, come out maybe once more to take off row cover or weed, and not have to check in on our plants

Escaping Cows and Other News

2009-06-14T15:31:00.004-04:00

For all of you visual learners, I've finally figured out how to post a slideshow of pictures to my blog. Hit play to take a tour around Caretaker's fields. My techno saavy has limits, though, and I'm yet to figure out how to include captions. So here's some commentary to explain the slideshow: Katie has planted an learning garden for children, complete with a Native American "three sisters"

A Matter of Perspective

2009-06-13T20:57:00.007-04:00

Growing weather; enough rain;the cow's udder tight with milk;the peach tree bent with its yield;honey golden in the white comb;the pastures deep in clover and grass,enough, and more than enough;the ground, new worked, moistand yielding underfoot, the feetcomfortable in it as roots;the early garden: potatoes, onions,peas, lettuce, spinach, cabbage carrots,radishes, marking their straight rowswith

Sous Chef Supreme

2009-06-03T10:33:00.002-04:00

My phenomenal ex-roommate, Athena, has done me the honor of writing about me and my cooking on her blog. I'd like to return the favor:I adore food. I'm an unapologetic, make-it-from-scratch, rehash-every-culinary-exploit-in-painful-detail foodie. I wasn’t always sent into raptures by summer’s first eggplant or fresh chevre. I could say that it started with a boy, and there would be truth in

A Change in the Weather

2009-06-02T14:14:00.003-04:00

Almost since my arrival, we've been vacillating between summer and winter: a week of weather in the 80's hit in mid-April, but we soon sank back into cold, with rain and several frosts. The last frost occurred Sunday night and it sent us scurrying every which way Saturday laying row cover on all of the tender tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, flowers, and strawberries. Sunday afternoon the wind

Just Being Neighborly

2009-05-27T20:24:00.002-04:00

According to some of our neighbors from across the street, who come out to volunteer every week or so, the hills around here are rife with bears. Whether day or night, so they say, they can't walk past their dumpster without interrupting some nosy black bear's snack. News of our neighbors' furry visitors came as something of a shock to us, caregivers to 5 large, yummy cows, 8 scrumptious pigs,

The Case for Working With Your Hands

2009-05-24T21:12:00.002-04:00

If anyone is struggling with the question of what to get me for Memorial Day (what? no one told you that we swap presents for Memorial Day now?), look no further than Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, an excerpt of which was adapted recently into an extended essay in the New York Times. While the article is, admittedly, on the long side, it is also the most eloquent,

Transplant Tetris

2009-05-14T19:28:00.007-04:00

The weather gods saw fit to bless us a drizzly, windy afternoon and a stormy night. While a season farming in Georgia has given me a healthy appreciation for precipitation, it has stretched our greenhouse to capacity. With tonight's high winds, we can't leave out the hardier stuff, as we normally would, hardening them off in preparation for transplanting. At the same time, our seeding

The Learning Curve Continues...

2009-05-13T20:02:00.003-04:00

One of the best and simultaneously most challenging aspects of farming is that I am forever discovering new avenues of exploration about which I know...nothing. In honor of that fact, here's a list of some interesting tidbits I've lately accumulated. Now if I could only retain all of this, and not have it leak out my ears like so much that I've learned over the years.If you scout your onion bed

Dirty Words

2009-05-07T20:33:00.002-04:00

What is the difference between dirt and soil? The difference is first and foremost our 5 cows--Lucy, Lukey, Leche, Maya, and Chloe. All winter long, our cows spent their nights in the barn, leaving us with an abundance of rich manure ideally situated for convenient composting. As soon as the snow melted and the pastures became knee-deep in fresh grass and covercrops, our bovine beasties began

Burn My Stillhouse Down

2009-05-03T14:48:00.006-04:00

A little over a year ago, I began this blog with a recipe for "massaged kale", courtesy of Sandor Katz's book The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. Alas, as I'm in New England now and Caretaker only grows kale as a fall crop, I cannot indulge in such a simple, sumptuous repast. But I have a new Sandor Katz book, Wild Fermentation, which offers recipes for delectable edibles that are season

Fending Off Famine

2009-04-29T20:24:00.004-04:00

Consider how many votes are cast over gun control, abortion, or gay rights, and then ask yourself how often you've seen politicians really squirm when grilled about raw milk. The politics of food is an fascinating, potentially incendiary topic, albeit one which frequently escapes our notice. I'm not just referring to the provenance of swine flu or ethanol subsidies, however; I was thinking

...And Then My Heart With Pleasure Fills...

2009-04-28T20:54:00.006-04:00

Something there is about springtime that would, I think, bring hopeful thoughts to the most inveterate pessimist. There's a reason Williams Wordsworth was driven to poetry by the sight of a field of daffodils--this season is intoxicating. Lately spring has settled upon Western Massachusetts like a landslide of life: our asparagus is exploding out of the soil, the covercrop of rye grass in our

A Scorched Earth Policy

2009-04-20T14:11:00.003-04:00

The appeal of agriculture among adolescent boys usually begins and ends with one word: tractor. But that's not the only exciting and potentially dangerous farm tool, I am happy to report. Today I learned how to use a flame thrower.Well, not exactly. It was really more like a large blowtorch on a stick, though calling it a "flame weeder" certainly sounds cooler. These flame weeders are our

Trial By Fire and Ice

2009-04-12T17:29:00.002-04:00

When I arrived at Caretaker Farm one week ago, I was hailed by swirling currents of snow flurries as I walked the frozen path to my new home (an unheated, unpowered cabin in the woods). I hugged a hot water bottle like my life depended on it that first night and did my best to think springy thoughts.The power of positive thinking, however, was not apparently strong enough to dismiss Old Man

Fit to Be (Hog) Tied

2009-04-08T20:37:00.001-04:00

A few days ago, the daughter of my new boss asked me why I said that pigs are especially smart. Suddenly at a loss for specifics, I made a bumbling attempt to answer (having only cared for pigs for a total of 1 day at this point). I think I said something about how they always poop in the same place--I had learned this about 4 hours prior to the question--and that they are curious and social

Truth breaks in, with all its matter-of-factness

2009-04-05T16:40:00.004-04:00

The best test for an occupation is this: do it for 3 days on next to no sleep, under stress, in the dank gray despondency of New England spring. If, on the third day, even as you realize that you have to put down your best milk cow, you can notice that the weather has cleared and the first peeping frogs are singing a serenade to spring, you are where you should be.Taking advantage of the short

Good from the First Drop

2009-03-29T21:23:00.000-04:00

La Granja de Don Eduardo (Salento)The Coffee Region is a stunningly gorgeous part of Colombia--and bear in mind that Colombia is a pretty outstandingly beautiful country in general. On either side of the highway, precipitously steep mountainsides overflow with a verdant abundance of flora. The countless shades of green run the gamut from the glossy darkness of coffee, to the electric green of

Full Circle

2009-03-25T21:03:00.004-04:00

I am a memory junkie. On long bus rides (of which there have been many, as of late), in line at DAS (Colombia's Kafka-esque cross between the CIA and the DMV), or during a lazy afternoon in the Botanical Gardens, I can always count on my memory to entertain me. Like easing into a warm bath, I slowly lower myself into some pleasant past event and wallow in my own private nostalgia-fest. It

If You Like Piña Coladas....

2009-03-01T07:20:00.004-05:00

There are several ways to make a really good piña colada. Obviously, you can run to the store and buy yourself a can of coconut milk and have fairly instant gratification.Or, you can take 2 months´ vacation and head to Colombia.Head east along the coast until you hit the tiny beach town of Taganga. Try to avoid a hostel that is adjacent to a discotec, or where the roof flaps in the wind and

Brain Food

2009-02-16T15:04:00.003-05:00

As I have noted, if someone were to make a top five list of Paisa weekend activities it would probably look something like this:5. Eat really delicious food4. Spend time with friends3. Visit with family2. Chill at a finca1. Party at your finca, with your family and friends, celebrating someone's birthday with lots of meat.Guess what I got to do last weekend? Alina's good friend Nati was

Grocery Story Shopping

2009-02-11T15:48:00.004-05:00

Check out Civil Eats (an awesome website in its own right) for a guest post by yours truly). I'm off to the grocery to conduct further "research". Yum.

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner

2009-02-08T08:55:00.003-05:00

I'm normally the kind of person who researches a trip semi-obsessively before my departure. By the time I boarded to the plane for my semester of "study" in New Zealand, for example, I had highlighted my Let's Go Travel Guide and already begun planning what food to pack for the hike to Milford Sound. For this Colombia expedition I decided to cultivate a bit more spontaneity, and about the only

Gastronomic Synchretism

2009-02-02T14:20:00.005-05:00

A "finca" according to my college Spanish, is a farm. So you can imagine my excitement, shortly after arriving in Medellin, to discover that most Paisas like nothing better than to spend a weekend chilling at their family`s finca. Wow, I thought, this is farming county! Well, not exactly. As it turns out, "finca" translates more accurately as "country house" ("granjas" are the places that produce

Eat, Speak, Love

2009-01-29T21:58:00.008-05:00

Allow me a brief linguistic digression, if you will.In my heretofore monolinguisity, I´ve always felt like a stereotypical American (and in a bad way). True, I´ve done my fair share of traveling, but always with handy phrase " do you speak English?" in the local idiom. Among other things, my Colombian adventure is an attempt to correct this shortcoming and finally achieve something akin to

I´ll Have What She´s Having

2009-01-26T00:16:00.002-05:00

I can pinpoint the moment when I relinquished any residual vestiges of picky eater-ness. I was in Turkey, traveling with four other girls, and we were dining at the home of family friends. I can´t remember most of the details of that feast (other than the fact that it was all indescribably delicious), but I do distinctly recall that one course featured whole artichoke hearts. I had spent the

The Accidental Farmers Of Medellin

2009-01-19T11:23:00.007-05:00

More so than at any other time, when I travel I begin to employ all of my senses, rather than relying on sight alone. The odor of exhaust intertwines with the warm, golden aroma of unfamiliar pastries and the steamy smell of pavement after a rain. I run my hands along carved marble facades or feel the uneven pitch of Bogota´s cobbled streets. under my feet . I revel in the rich, creamy

Saludos desde Colombia!

2009-01-17T16:08:00.004-05:00

Put aside, if you will, the saga of my wild yeast bread. I've taken two lessons from that little mishap: 1) don't begin blogging a process until you have seen it through to its (successful) conclusion first, and 2) don't try to make bread with wild yeast, MK. Suffice it to say that while the final product was indeed edible, it looked more like a cross between a frisbee and one of Jupiter's

Boil, Boil, Toil and Trouble

2009-01-06T12:09:00.004-05:00

The last time I tried to make spontaneously leavened bread was ever so disheartening. I made a mixture of only flour and water (as per instructions from the internet) and set it in the oven to ferment. To keep the temperature in the 70-80° range that yeast seems to like, I left the oven light on. I waited. And waited. Apparently, the yeast in Atlanta's winter air was of a lazy sort, but I

The Great Bread Challenge Begins

2009-01-04T23:41:00.002-05:00

The more that I read about the loaf that is slowly taking shape in my kitchen, the more convinced I become that this bread-baking business may be the hardest thing that I have ever done. I'm also slowly realizing why the bread that I buy at market costs so gosh darn much--making a good loaf of bread is no cake walk. Heck, cakes are easy!To preface this adventure, I'm not a stranger to ovens, by

Felicitous Words for a Happy New Year

2009-01-01T11:19:00.006-05:00

There are exceptions to every rule, of course, but we farmers tend to be a list-making bunch. When I visited Crabapple Farm for example, they showed me a farm to-do list so impressively exhaustive that it warranted photographic documentation. What my own lists may lack in length, they more than make up for in number; I am always scribbling lists on the backs of receipts or in the corners of

Onward! Upward!

2008-12-19T10:08:00.012-05:00

Despite all of the heat of summer, there are some perks to life in Georgia. At present, it is 61° in Atlanta, and creeping slowly towards a daytime high of 70°. Despite the misconceptions of wayward New Yorkers, who think that Atlanta is always this tropical, this weather is rather bizarre. I noticed a cherry tree putting out its first tentative blooms yesterday as I went for a run, and I

Thanksgiving Reflections on a Year Well Lived

2008-11-27T17:09:00.002-05:00

I'm not a farmer anymore. Tuesday was my last day at Serenbe: we harvested kohlrabi, beets, and carrots; we washed the bins of veggies harvested Monday; I weeded a bit. And then, in the evening, we opened our Tuesday night winter farm stand for the first time this year. The routine was familiar, though the specifics (that this was no longer my job) made it strange. I felt antsy going home;

To See the Universe in a Slice of Pie

2008-11-17T00:20:00.005-05:00

To slightly misquote author and scientist Carl Sagan, "if you want to make a sweet potato pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."Before this past week, I might have thought that this was simply a metaphor, a reminder of the length and complexity of the subtle chain of cause and effect that makes up every action in every day. I am now convinced that he was actually talking about

Frosted Tips

2008-11-04T15:43:00.005-05:00

Let me begin by saying that Jack Frost is an dangerous, dangerous man. You may have believed, from Christmas carols or holiday films, that he was a benign seasonal figure, etcher of ice crystal window or frosty windshields. Try brutal vegetable serial killer. To be fair, we at Serenbe escaped from Jack Frost's clutches without nearly the carnage that might have occurred. Still, I spent a

Chicken: It's What's For Dinner

2008-11-02T23:01:00.005-05:00

Ever made that joke, as you waited for slow-as-Christmas food service, that they must be slaughtering the main course somewhere out back? Now you too can add extra hours (technically months!) to your dinner preparations with The Raw and the Cook's handy DIY home chicken processing guide. Dismayed by the dearth of instructional video footage online, I decided to film clips of our last chicken

Undercover Farming

2008-10-25T10:30:00.003-04:00

When I first visited Serenbe, in December of 2007, most of our fields were incognito, hiding under a winter cover crop and resting until spring. To my untrained eye, however, Serenbe seemed a very small farm, only growing in a few patches here and there on the farm. Once I began working here, in March, I gradually learned to distinguish the covers of vetch, clover, winter peas, and rye from the

Meet Your Meat

2008-10-20T21:17:00.002-04:00

So you'd like to learn about chicken harvesting? Well, here's your chance. This Friday, October 24th, we'll being slaughtering what may be our last round of broilers. We're looking for any intrepid locavores who would like to lend a hand in the slaughter, whether as executioners, pluckers, eviscerators, or camera folk (I'm hoping to make a little video post of the process). We'll teach you

Time to Visit the Newsstand

2008-10-12T09:29:00.003-04:00

While I work on my epic composting/vermiculture post (when I finally post it, be sure to have a comfy seat handy), check out this week's fantastic issue of the New York Times Magazine. Among other awesomeness it features interviews with Food Rock stars like Severine von Tscharner Fleming (director of the forthcoming young farmer documentary The GreenHorns), an open letter to the future president

I'll Have the Venti Compost Tea, Cream, No Sugar

2008-10-11T08:42:00.004-04:00

When it comes to composting, my spirit has always been willing, but my body (and mind) have always been weak. For starters, what literature I have read on the subject always begins by boring me and ends by offering intimidating formulas (30 parts "brown" material such as leaves to 1 part "green" material such as food scraps). Seeing as I have a ready supply of food scraps and, until recently,

Farewell My Chopsticks; Hello My Spork

2008-10-07T00:05:00.002-04:00

I used to know that fall was coming when lunchboxes went on sale and my mother suddenly decided that I needed new shoes. One week ago, fall signaled its arrival with far less fanfare: a leaf landed in the brassica bed as I was weeding. I've become accustomed to the man-made signs of fall (tax holidays, first days of school, and Halloween decorations), so I'm quite enjoying a seasonal transition

The College Board Weighs In

2008-09-28T19:43:00.007-04:00

An analogy:waitresses: underpaid :: farmers:a) overworkedb) underpaidc) unappreciatedd) all of the abovee) rock starsWhen I'm not on the farm, I moonlight as an SAT tutor in the big city. Among the countless reading comprehension sections about Frederick Douglass, time travel, and art appreciation, I occasionally get lucky and am able to use the SAT as a segue into farming. One short reading

Further Evidence that Chocolate is Good for the Soul

2008-09-23T14:28:00.002-04:00

Earlier this season, I noticed that some of our neighbors on Hutchinson Ferry have a small garden in their front yard which contains, among other things, banana trees. Now this is an inspiration to me. For one thing, bananas are practically the Antichrist of the local food movement. When are they in season? Who knows, as none of them come from anywhere closer than Mexico. But I'm excited by these

A Fine Foundation

2008-09-15T00:05:00.005-04:00

Check out September's National Geographic for an awesome cover story all about my favorite underrated subject: dirt. Read it--I promise you won't be bored.

Robert Frost and Charlotte's Web

2008-09-13T23:36:00.005-04:00

I've never understood arachnophobia. To me, spider webs things of beauty, especially viewed through hazy morning light. I appreciate the diligent way their denizens make and maintain their homes, the neat predictability of a web. Spiders stay put, never scurry across the kitchen floor when you turn on the light in the morning. Unlike ants, spiders don't bite, in my experience. I've

15 Reasons to Move to California

2008-09-09T20:11:00.011-04:00

1. Peaches2. Plums3. Pluots4. Pears (Asian and standard5. Figs6. Apples7. Meyer Lemons8. Melons9. Dates10. Strawberries11. Blackberries12. Raspberries13. Nectarines14. Pomegranites15. A California law which states that any fruit on branches above public land (regardless of where the tree's roots rest) is fair game for foragers. Did someone say paradise?In the meantime, I'm striving to bring the

Go Slow!

2008-09-03T23:40:00.002-04:00

Remember when being called "slow" was an insult? Ok, perhaps in some circles it still is. But for me, it has become not only a badge of honor but something of a life philosophy. I came to this realization today while cruising on the tractor at the positively reckless speed of .1 miles per hour. Needless to say, I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere. Far from it, every fiber of my consciousness was

Fantasty Farming

2008-08-28T07:34:00.007-04:00

Forget Life, Trivial Pursuit, or that ancient computer game Oregon Trail. My new favorite game is a Serenbe exclusive: "So You Want to be a Farmer?" After a morning of normal farm work (weeding , harvesting, moving our chickens to fresh pasture) we retired to Paige's house with MacBooks in tow for an afternoon surprise. She emerged from her office with a stack of seed catalogs and the rules of

In Defense of Dirty Fingernails

2008-08-24T21:35:00.002-04:00

What feature of yourself are you most proud of? Until recently, I wouldn’t have known how to answer such a question—far easier to say what bothers me, what I would change. After five months as a farmer, I now know: I am inordinately proud of my hands. My fingertips are pitted from the horse nettle thorns hiding among more innocuous weeds. The skin on the sides of my index fingers refuses to

The Signposts of Summer

2008-08-11T23:46:00.003-04:00

For anyone who read about our massive tomato-transplanting day so many moons ago, it probably comes as no surprise that the prospect of our twice-weekly tomato harvest inspires in me more than a little dread. My tomato anxiety, however, has less to do with the epic proportions of our harvest (we pulled in slightly more than 450 pounds of salable tomatoes today, for example), and more to do with

Let them eat chicken

2008-08-04T18:26:00.002-04:00

It was a bit like a scene from Macbeth: thunder rolling in the background, a cauldron-like stockpot seething atop our grill, and across from me, Jack brandishing a shiny new chef knife.It was chicken harvesting time.Since out broilers first arrived, I’ve spent a good bit of time thinking about slaughter. Not that I relish the thought of killing and cleaning a chicken (far from it!), but I wanted

Good to the Last Drop

2008-07-21T17:32:00.004-04:00

When I was in college, my friend Laura gained a reputation as the best free food scavenger on campus. Once clear of the mandatory freshman meal plan, Laura seemingly never paid for food again, instead managing to show up with uncannily perfect timing and large quantities of Tupperware wherever food was being given away. On occasion, this made her diet a bit monotonous (one particularly massive

Word of the Day

2008-07-12T21:42:00.004-04:00

My fellow farmers like to tease me about my eclectic vocabulary. I collect words the way my older brother used to collect Star Wars figures: greedily, giddily, and very, very geekishly. (ok, so maybe he wasn't giddy. But geekish? You decide.) For example, when the Oxford English Dictionary crowned "locavore" the word of the year in 2007, I was among those who not only noticed, but also became

Just Call Me Granny, Y'all

2008-06-30T22:12:00.013-04:00

Whatever personal conflicts I may have with my heritage, deep down, I'm ever so glad that I'm southern. True, I start shivering when the mercury drops below 50. Yes, I insert "y'all" in my emails and conversations with reckless abandon. But let's remember--y'all--just why the south, for all its peccadilloes, is a glorious place to call home: the symphonic evening swell of cicadas from April

Summer Reading

2008-06-26T21:01:00.004-04:00

If you could pose a question to a former president, what would you ask? In my pre-farmer days, I interned at the peace-waging, disease-fighting Carter Center, where I was fortunate to be given just such an opportunity. I asked President Carter for advice about peanut farming.Before entering politics and eventually founding the Carter Center, President Carter began life as a farm child . I took

Squashzilla

2008-06-23T22:42:00.010-04:00

The squash from outerspaceQuestion: What do your get when you leave summer squash to their own devises for the two short days of a weekend?Answer: Uninhibited growth. And a rather entertaining edible.By the time Monday afternoon squash harvest rolls around, there are always a few whoppers lurking under leaves. Because larger squash tend to have proportionally larger seeds, these Abominable

The Birds and the Bees

2008-06-19T18:38:00.007-04:00

Our farm is alive! Not simply with plants (and weeds), but positively overflowing with animals and insects as well. Admittedly, some of the denizens of our farm are less than welcome--the baby fawn that was lounging in our melon bed the other morning, the Japanese beetles that fall like grapes from the leaves of our fig trees, the squash bugs, or the Colorado potato beetles. Two days ago, as

Shameless Self Promotion

2008-06-17T22:18:00.004-04:00

Let us pause for a moment and reflect on the sad loss of the strawberry patch. Yes, strawberries have passed out of season for yet another year, at least in Georgia. While I certainly tried to make myself sick of them by eating a year's supply in two short months, I know that I will inevitably be craving sweet red strawberry goodness again by January, if not sooner.And now celebrate the arrival

Zen and the Art of Pastured Pountry

2008-06-13T21:49:00.007-04:00

According to my beginner's knowledge of Buddhism, attachment is the source of all suffering. Holding that thought firmly in mind, I opened two fiercely chirping boxes this morning and introduced our 100-odd baby chicks to their new home. Some of the tiny birds are intended to supplement our still dwindling flock of layers (these I am allowed to love); the vast majority will be "broilers,"

Curds and Whey

2008-06-08T21:39:00.002-04:00

Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet,Eating her curds and whey...I arrived home this evening to an unpleasant discovery: ants have invaded my kitchen. I've been hearing rumors of the annual ant invasion for several weeks now, but I had so far escaped the plague. No longer. Our home, in addition to having sculpted carpet and tile counter tops (possibly the worst design idea in the history of

Just Like Riding a Bike?

2008-06-04T20:16:00.005-04:00

Technically, we still have a few days before June 21st and the summer solstice. But tell that to the squash and cucumber plants that are churning out flying saucer patty pans, warty yellow crooknecks, delicate green lebanese, and about 15 varieties of cucumber in a glut of plant fertility. Besides the heat (we've broken 90 each day this week) and the ubiquitous cucurbits (aka squash, cucs, and

Eeeny-Meeny-Miney-Mo

2008-05-30T19:53:00.006-04:00

I've heard that some people decide where to move based on the quality of the public schools, job prospects, the prevalence of microbreweries, or other minutia of life. As for me, I find myself daydreaming about future residences in terms of the their soil, growing season, and occasionally the cost of land. Seeing as I have no money to speak of, however, I really don't pay much attention to

In Which I Put my English Degree to Good Use

2008-05-29T23:20:00.006-04:00

In honor of Paige's grandmother's hollyhocks:Soliloquy of a Tortoise Upon Revisiting the Lettuce Beds After an Interval of One Hour, While Supposed to be Sleeping in a Clump of Blue HollyhocksI cannot get enoughOf this delicious stuff!-E.V.RieuI heartily concur.

Coming In, Moving Out

2008-05-28T23:07:00.004-04:00

Up to this point, the harvest has been an ever swelling abundance: nothing has truly passed out of season except asparagus (which we don't grow yet, anyway) and our bok choy (which I can live without). With the summer solstice fast approaching, however, I feel as though I'm on board one of those flying spaceship rides so popular at amusement parks and carnivals, swinging incrementally higher and